The Importance of Real-Time Availability in Modern Parking Management Systems

10 Oct 2016

Parking enforcement officials enjoy enhanced speed, accuracy, and efficiency with modern parking management systems. They can cover more ground faster, and levy tickets with far greater accuracy, than ever before. This limits ticket challenges and citations made in error, which raises municipal revenues by increasing compliance.

The key to these new technologies is the availability of real-time connection between parking rights servers and handheld parking enforcement devices, which ensures accurate information delivery and efficient enforcement procedures. This works to the benefit of officers and parkers alike, and safeguards the fair implementation of modern parking enforcement systems.

Smoother Integration and Payment are Guaranteed with Real-Time Tech

Every city is different. Even so, real-time parking systems are designed to work with each city’s unique needs and configurations. Using a Simple Object Access Protocol, or SOAP for short, gtechna’s parking enforcement software can interface with virtually any existing payment technology: that means permits, pay-by-plate and pay and pay-by-space pay stations, as well as pay by phone—real-time technology ensures parking rights from these payment services are supported and integrated for 99.99% uptime, with no single point of failure.

Zone-Based Enforcement

Neighborhoods and local zones often have different parking rights, while certain areas need to account for unique aspects of local business rules. Real-time availability ensures that the mobile enforcement application on a parking officer’s handheld device knows what’s going on in any given zone, at any given time. Better still, parking rights gathering is completely decoupled from the main operations server, so that it can remain up-and-running without disruption in the event of a complication somewhere else in the parking rights framework.

With real-time availability, cities can maintain server responsiveness and connection to prevent lost revenue and incorrect ticketing. This helps ensure accurate citations throughout the municipality, no matter what its special circumstances may be.

Real-Time Availability Ensures Accurate Citations

Modern parking management systems work much faster than older ones. In some cases, enforcement officials utilizing pay-by-plate technology can scan up to 8,000 license plates per shift. At this elevated number, one might assume errors would increase, but enforcement errors actually go down, to mere decimal points of of all tickets written. This level of accuracy is simply not possible without real-time communication.

When parkers pay their fares with mobile pay-by-plate technology, their plate information syncs immediately with the parking database. Officers checking parking in that area won’t have to check a meter or spend time chalking tires: instead, the parking rights database shows whether or not a given car is in violation with up-to-the-second accuracy. Parking officers can do their jobs more efficiently as a result.

To safeguard this arrangement, built-in redundancies guarantee high server availability to ensure optimal operational performance. Parking rights are held on two physically-separated servers so that if one goes down, the other will remain unaffected. Furthermore, handheld devices are equipped to switch endpoints if necessary, keeping operations up and running with no interruption as soon as any network issues are detected. In the event a network does go down, though, those out-of-communication parking zones become “Paid Zones,” absolving any cars within it from citations during the downtime and keeping the enforcement system consistent and fair based on each individual city’s particular parking requirements.

Secure, Worry-Free Parking Operations

The modern world has reinvented itself in large part due to the convenience of real-time communication. It puts the world at the fingertips of customers and officials alike, making a compelling argument for a modern parking system upgrade. Though no two municipalities are exactly alike, parking management software solutions are available to fit the needs of any town or city. Real-time availability is the key: it guarantees efficiency and security, and opens up a world of new possibilities in parking rights management.

Wondering what parking management in the cloud looks like? Check out our infographic!